Happy New Year everyone from your favorite Dimwit. Just want you all to know that this blog has meant a lot to me, and thus you faithful readers really have made it worth blogging. This all would be for naught if it weren't for the comments, feedback, trades and barbs that fly back and forth. I hope the best for all of you in the coming year. Also, I've decided to make a couple New Years Resolutions for my collecting:

1) Get organized. I've got lots of boxes and lots of cards that are just taking up space with little to no organization. I've already started part of my organization process by putting several sets into binders. But my big goal is to get my non-Astros, non-set completion cards sorted by teams, then work on getting those cards distributed to collectors. Here's another big part of this: my football and basketball cards. I don't collect these anymore and 99% of it is junk wax from the mid-90's. I'd lean towards throwing them all away, but every time I think about it, I wonder if there isn't someone who could use them. They'd be a pain in the @$$ to mail, but if anyone has any ideas, let me know... Also, I've got a handful of sets I'm trying to complete that I need to wrap up, please take a look at my need lists and let me know if you can help. Just search Need List in the search bar and they should pop up.

2) Narrow the scope of my collection. This goes hand-in-hand with the organization thing, but a goes a bit further. I've picked (3) sets that I plan to collect this year and am committing to myself (and my wife) that I'll buy cards from no other sets until/unless I get those (3) sets completed. So, here are the (3) sets for 2011:

2011 Topps Series 1 & 2 - I cannot wait to see the hits from the Diamond collection, hopefully there'll be some really good cards that make the set collectible, and not more crap from Topps. I've got my fingers crossed. If this is a let-down of a set, then I'm just going to stop collecting Topps' base sets from now on. If you're going to have a monopoly on baseball, please make a worthwhile set.

2011 Allen and Ginter - The set that got me back into collecting in 2009 will continue to be collected. I LOVE this set and after getting a rare 1/1 Cabinet Loader Auto-Relic of Lincecum this year, I'm hoping to have great results this next year. I'll collect this set each year regardless. Just the base set though, I'm not chasing down mini's anymore and I'll keep the hits that I really like. Other than the Lincecum already stated, my fav hits from this year were the Berkman Printing Plate and the X-Ray printing plate. Both just look cool in the collection!

2011 Gypsy Queen - This set just looks cool and I love what Topps is doing with the retro cigarette cards. The T206 was pretty disappointing this year, and thus it's been discontinued, but the previews of GQ look great and I'll give this set a shot.

Well, there's my resolutions, hopefully I can stick to them!!!

As promised in the post title, I do have a video for you guys. I need to make a clarification beforehand though, there is a trade where I couldn't remember who I traded with and said such in the video. The trade is with Marck from The Collective Troll! He was very generous in sending me some vintage Astros, and I'm really sorry about the brain fart during the video. Also, there is a skip within the video. I was filming on my day off from work and had the camera so that you couldn't see me, however there was a highly reflective card and you got a good view of me without a shirt on. For the safety of all involved, I edited it out... it wasn't pretty... Luckily the video cam made it through without much damage... Thanks for all of the trades this year every one! It's been great getting involved in the blog community and trading with people all over this great country!

As reported in earlier blog posts, I have been given the opportunity to review products for www.csnstores.com. Well, here's the first review. My wife and I selected a small coffee maker, 4-cup capacity, because we recently got a espresso machine and started enjoying coffee at home. The only thing we didn't have was an actual drip-style coffee maker. We had a few requirements. We wanted one that was a smaller capacity, we certainly don't need 12 cups of coffee at a time. We wanted one that would allow us to pour a cup mid-brew. And finally we wanted it to be compact. Our counters are already crowded enough as it is.

After searching through the CSNStores catalog, we came across this specimen. It fit our criteria exactly so we ordered it on 12/21/2010. Knowing it was right at Christmas time, I didn't expect to take delivery on this item until pretty close to the 1st of the year. However, the promise date given was "on or by 12/28/2010" so I was satisfied when the package arrived on the exact date promised. An e-mail was sent with the UPS tracking number as well.

Here's the product out of the shipping box and then out of the product box. All items received in good order. The coffeemaker included 3 filters and a coffee scoop as well. So after dinner last night, the wife and I decided a nice cup of Dunkin' Donut brand coffee was in order. Within the water reservoir we found that there are demarcations based on how many cups of coffee you'd like to brew, another plus! So we filled it up to the 2-cup line, added the coffee and let 'er whirl! Within a minute or two, we assumed there was enough coffee for a cup and pulled the carafe to pour a cup. The auto-brew-shut-off worked as expected and not a drop of coffee hit the hot plate. We then let it finish it's brewing cycle and poured the other cup. The coffee was steaming hot and delicious.

Clean-up was a cinch. The coffee grounds basket pulled out from the container and had the shut-off mechanism attached, so it didn't drip on the way to the trash can. I dumped the filter and grounds, and then rinsed out the empty pot. Viola, we had our coffee and a clean kitchen rather instantaneously.

So, I'll go ahead and give my ratings of both the product and the CSNStores ordering/shipping process:

1) CSN Stores Shopping Experience: 5 of 5 stars - easy website to navigate and find products, easy check-out process; very little confusion regarding what step of the process you're in.
2) CSN Stores Shipping - 5 of 5 stars - even during the holiday season, they hit their target promise date. The item was shipped in an appropriate sized box with air pocket cushions within to protect the cargo.
3) Cuisinart 4-Cup Coffee Maker - 4 of 5 stars - It made coffee just as expected, the shut-off valve is exactly what we were looking for and the low capacity suits our needs perfectly. The only downside is the stainless-steel carafe. While it does keep the coffee hot, you do lose the ability to see how much coffee is already brewed that you would have in a glass carafe. Other than that, I'd recommend this product for anyone looking for a home coffeemaker!*

*Disclaimer: This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me (The Dimwit: Sam). This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation.

The compensation received will never influence the content, topics or posts made in this blog. All advertising is in the form of advertisements generated by a third party ad network. Those advertisements will be identified as paid advertisements.

The owner of this blog is compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. Even though the owner of this blog receives compensation for my posts or advertisements, I always give my honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experiences on those topics or products. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely my own. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider or party in question.*

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

After reading a blog entry over at Bad Wax about a new cut signatures card company in the industry, I was intrigued. My wife and I have been opening packs in various sets both in the baseball and cinema realm hoping to find a cut signature. We just think they are cool and would like to have one some day of either a famous Hollywood star or a vintage (i.e. passed away) baseball star. To me, cut signatures are kind of lame if I am able to go to a card show and get the same person to sign a card for me, they lose their luster a bit in my opinion. So, after reading the post at Bad Wax, I went over to the company's website: Tri City Sports to check them out. They have a new site starting on January 1st, 2011 at www.tricitysportspl.com.

I registered with the site and contacted the operator of the site, hoping to get some more information and through e-mail conducted a brief but really informative interview of sorts. I had a few questions and co-owner Paul responded using his phone, so I've cleaned up some spelling, but other than that, his answers are unedited. First of all I asked him to shed a little light and give us some history on Tri City Sports.

"A little about Tri City Sports PL: this company was established in 2008 and had financial difficulties and our group purchased the company in September of 2010! Before we purchased the company Tri City was only making soccer cards and stickers for soccer games in Poland! Tricity has never released any product outside of Poland but now that it's under new management; we have 2 releases for 2011! 1st release is Diamond Cuts Baseball in Jan /15/2011 (worldwide release) and we will be releasing a soccer product in the spring which will be exclusive to Europe only!"

I found it interesting that a company that started with soccer cards in Poland is making the leap to American baseball and cut signatures. So I asked Paul what got them interested in the cut signature card market:

"Well we saw that there was a lot of cut products in the market which had seriously over priced products in terms of return for collectors so instead of releasing a standard issue product we are releasing a cut edition product where each case will offer four 1/1 cut auto's per case along with our golden ticket redemption program which will include some real 1/1 type items from the golden days of baseball (non announced yet program)."

I agree that a lot of the cut signature products have a price point about $50 too high. The return-on-investment for these boxes/packs is ridiculously low and from some of the cards I've seen I am not impressed. Who needs a cut signature of Candy Maldanado that is cut from a previously autographed baseball card? I would be very upset to have pulled that card from a $125 box/pack. I'm intrigued to find out more about this "golden ticket redemption program". Sounds like it could lead to some really valuable cards/items that make the $80 per box/pack price much easier to fork over. Next, I asked Paul why card collectors should invest in the Tri City product:

"Honestly we know it's tough for collectors with the hard times now a days and things are tight for a lot of middle class households with box prices going high and higher! Our competition offers a lot of products for many years which the owners of Tri City have collected in the past! Our customers will realize our products are top notch and offer a lot of bang for the buck; we might not have the big ads on TV or the radio but as collectors and owners of Tri City we realize to make a successful product we have to make sure our customers are happy and we offer a chance for them to get some of the Top Cut Auto's of the best in the game past, present and future! Our motto is "For the Collector By the Collector!"

I really liked his answer and I think it echos a lot of how I feel about the major card companies. I'm not naive enough to think it's not a profit driven business, however I feel as though the card industry took us for fools in the late 80's and 90's with the massive amount of junk wax, and now feel like they are doing us some kind of favor with the over-run products they are offering as of late. Add in the virtual monopoly Topps has on baseball, and some of the poor quality controls issues with some of the relics, cut sigs and bad autos I've seen of late and it just compounds the issue as a whole. The big companies need to keep in mind that they still NEED paying customers and that we aren't just going to buy whatever junk they produce every year. Anyways, Paul seems to have a pretty good grasp on what collectors are looking for, as he is one himself.

I then asked Paul about their authentication process. As a new entry in the market, I could see how people might be leery of cut signatures from an unknown company (as if cut sigs from a known company coughcoughTOPPScough are any more trustworthy).

"All cuts are certified by a third party aka PSA/JSA/STENIER plus our own household expert and all cut auto cards will have a special lite mark (non visible to the naked eye) to make sure there not altered in the second market! If a collector buys our cuts in the secondary market and feels something is not right they will have a chance to send in their cards to us to verify that their card is a original Tri City Cut Auto (Non Altered) for the cost of shipping!"

Wow, first of all I don't know if Topps, Upper Deck or Donruss/Panini do the same "lite mark" that Tri City will be doing but what a great idea. I am very uneasy about buying cut signatures online or on ebay just due to the fact that you rarely know exactly who you're dealing with and if it is authentic or a lame reproduction. With this info, I think I'd feel a bit better putting down some cash for an auto from Tri City should it pop up on ebay.

Finally, the all important question: When can I buy???

"Its hard to say when Diamond Cuts Baseball will be released but our original date of Jan/15/2011 might be pushed back to Feb/5/2011 because we are still currently in the last stages of printing!"

Well folks, there you go. I do plan on buying a box, just to play the odds and try to get some sort of original card with a cool cut signature! As an avid card collector, I really do wish Paul and the rest of the team at Tri City Sports PL the best of luck with the Diamond Cuts Baseball set! Hopefully this is the first set of many! (And my wife would really appreciate if an exclusively Hollywood set could be in the making!)

Thursday, December 23, 2010

After many delays due to YouTube/Dimwit compatibility issues, I give you the following video:

The foil cards and hits are for trade. If you have a want list, I can see if I have any doubles available. Let me know what you would like to offer. Please e-mail me (samuelpair@yahoo.com) for trade negotiations, it's difficult for me to keep up with them through the comments.

For any previously discussed trades in comments, please e-mail me if you feel I haven't responded or if there are any cards in previous posts that you're interested in!

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Hey everyone, just thought I'd plug this contest because it is SUPER easy to enter! Just vote and proudly tell all the interwebs who you voted for... or you could lame out and e-mail your vote to the blog-runners! Don't be a coward!!!

Monday, December 20, 2010

Hey everyone, I'm going to be selecting my first product for review from CSNStores.com soon. What will I pick? It could be anything from their catalog.. from anything from counter height stools to great cookware! I'll get you an update as soon as I know for sure what I'll be reviewing!

Also, a big thanks to Ted at Crinkly Wrappers, for the Topps cards he was giving away and that I received today... scans coming soon, I got a little bit of vintage, a little bit of new, and an interesting GU-Bat card... more to come later in the week!

Sunday, December 19, 2010

The wife and I headed out this afternoon with a wad of cash and a dream of autographed cards and memorabilia... and we were not left wanting... I ended up buying a few random packs, 2 boxes of 2007 UD Masterpieces (the guy gave me a steal of a deal, 2 boxes for $40 - he said it my early Christmas present!!!) and a box of 2006 UD ArtiFacts... I made out like a bandit on the GU materials, as you can see below...

The highlight of these, to me, is the Eddie Matthews relic. It's obviously a wool, old-style uni and it's numbered #76/100. Very cool, even if Beckett says it's only worth $10. I'm keeping it for sure. The rest are definitely trade bait. Next, are the auto's that I pulled plus the horizontal jersey card I got:

So the highlight here is the Clemens Auto. I'm a huge fan, steroids or not. I figure everyone was either using them or had the opportunity to do with with little to no enforcement. So the epic battles between him and Bonds were equal opportunity 'roid rage moments... Awesome on-card auto and a nice addition to my personal collection. The Cliff Lee is nice as well, even if it's a sticker. As for Boof Bonser, his name is Boof, what else is there to say???? All but the Clemens are trade bait. Alright, onwards to the box loaders from the UD Masterpieces:

These are full 5"x7" box loader cards, and as much as it pains me to say it, the Jeter card is pretty sweet. Upper Deck had a great idea with the Masterpieces set, so much better than 99% of what Topps throws out there. These two are both trade bait for the right offer! Finally, I've got a bit of a conundrum on my hands, I don't know what this final card is... it's from UD Masterpieces and while the front looks normal enough (other than the foil inlays):

The back of the card is what intrigues me:

As you can surely see, there is a foil inlay "1 of 1" on the back. Is this an Artist Proof? I'm not sure, but I am very excited about a "1 of 1" genuine article. Anyone have something similar they can help point me in the right direction with? My only guess is it's the artist proof because there is border on the front. This is not for trade...

Friday, December 17, 2010

I've been contacted by www.csnstores.com to be a reviewer of their product line, much as fellow blogger Nachos Grande has been, so I am hopping on the gravy train and start reviewing quality cookwares and home furnishings ASAP!!!! Get ready, you'll soon be reading a review of some randomly selected product on my blog. Here's a chance for you to participate: go to www.csnstores.com and find something you want me to try for you because you might be reluctant to buy it yourself. I'll request it, review it and let you know what level of awesome it is! Give me your suggestions and I'll do my best to pick from them when deciding!

Thanks everyone.. FYI, there's a card post in the works... a video of semi-epic mediocre proportions, but there are auto's and relics!!!

**** UPDATE: For what it's worth, here's two caveats: 1) The Dimwit and wife are vegetarians, but still do quite a bit of cooking otherwise and 2) The items needs to be $35 or less including shipping. ****

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Good evening everyone... I've been a MAJOR slacker on the blogging lately. Life has been busy, the holidays have been crazy and well honestly the hobby is in a bit of a slump period when it comes to baseball cards. I don't really bother with football, basketball or any of the minor sports. I am a die-hard Texans fan, just don't collect the cards. My card collection is dis-organized and unruly enough as it is, don't need to be adding more craziness in the mix. Some day I'm going to pull all of my basketball and football cards and do one hell of a giveaway or contest! But for the time being, I'll keep buying discounted blasters wherever I can find them. I also am continuing to trade cards. I have a couple of posts I need to get up and scans I need to do of trades. They are coming (rhubarb)... I also got my Red Hot Rookies redemption of Jose Tabata, which really is a cool card and they managed to keep it from being a super bendy chrome type... but in lieu of trade posts and scans, I give you the following massive video (b/c youtube finally extended me past the 15 minute length restriction)... 99% of the cards in here are for trade, just let me know if there's something you're interested in!

In fact, I'll do a little contest here right now... for all my extremely faithful readers. Put a comment on this post of any 5 cards you want out of this video. I'll do a randomization on Friday around noon-ish and whoever wins will get those 5 cards, plus one bonus card of my choosing (hint hint, it'll probably be your favorite team and most likely a quality insert!!!!). The only cards off-limit are the Nolan Ryan All-Time Great from 06 Upper Deck and the 4 UD 20th Anniversary Cards. All other cards are in play! If you need clarification on any of the cards, email me at samuelpair@yahoo.com and I'll answer any questions. What the heck, if you link this contest on your site and EMAIL ME A LINK then I'll give you an extra entry in the randomization. Good luck everyone! Hope you are all having a great holiday... and thanks for reading my blog and watching my goofball videos... (and my half-sincere apologies to Yankees fans, I don't really hate Jeter... well kinda...) See you all on Friday!

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Hey everyone... I put this video together late last night and well, I totally screwed up who traded me what. Cameron, I apologize, it was you who sent me the Texans cards, not Colby. For any other mistakes, I truly apologize... it was late, I was tired and I had lost my notes on who had traded me what... gotta get more organized... for those who have trades mentioned in this video, I really do appreciate the trades. Great cards and I'm always happy for more Astros cards to show up in my mail box!

Player Collection Wants

Nolan Ryan - any game used relic, auto or pre 1980 cards. I've got most of his stuff from about 81 through his last year in the league. I'd also be interested in any cards issued after his playing days were over.

Jeff Bagwell - An area of my collection is a bit sparse. I would like to add more game used and some autos as well. Again, if you have anything, I'd definitely be interested in trading for it!